Lead Scientist, Fermentation (18-month fixed-term contract) - Remote

The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) is a nonprofit think tank at the forefront of the movement to transform meat production in order to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, from climate change and global hunger, to antibiotic resistance and animal suffering.

We work with scientists, businesses and policymakers to make plant-based and cultivated meat (grown directly from cells) delicious, affordable and accessible. Please check out the rest of our website, our 2025 Year in Review and our 2025 Europe Highlights blog post to find out more about who we are and what our charity does.

We are looking for a Lead Scientist, Fermentation to analyse the technical landscape for proteins and ingredients derived from microbial fermentation, identify key challenges, and articulate solutions to accelerate the industry. 

How You Will Make a Difference: 

We need the best scientists in Europe to be engaged in plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-enabled protein research and development. At GFI Europe, the goals of our SciTech work are threefold: 1) grow the technical research community, 2) steer their work towards the most impactful research and 3) increase the research funding this community receives. 

To inform these activities, we need to better understand how to develop and scale alternative protein production in Europe — forecasting challenges such as scaling bottlenecks and key environmental or cost drivers, and proposing actions for producers, companies, scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders to address them. From initial scoping, we have identified a critical knowledge gap for the alternative protein sector in Europe: projecting future need for fermentation inputs in Europe and determining how to meet it (likely through leveraging alternatives to 1st generation sugars). We therefore anticipate that at least 50% of this role will be dedicated to leading a project to address this question. 

The remainder of your time would be focused on providing ad hoc subject matter expertise to support specific initiatives during the contract period across a range of GFI’s priorities, including providing a global support function to colleagues outside of GFI Europe on time-limited workstreams. During this period, you will also collaborate with key academic, nonprofit, and industry stakeholders to ensure that efforts and funding are allocated toward the highest-impact research areas to accelerate the adoption of fermentation-enabled proteins and improve the sustainability of the food system. 

Reporting to the Head of Science and Technology, you will serve as GFI Europe’s fermentation science expert for the duration of this role. 

To achieve this, you will:

• Define the focus and timeline and then lead a project to analyse 1) European fermentation input needs and 2) pathways to meet this need. This will probably involve a combination of internal and externally-contracted analyses to fully address both of these questions. The output will likely include either a white paper, conference presentations, a peer-reviewed article, or some combination thereof.

• Act as a subject matter expert for external scientists, research centres, and research projects on priority research topics and whitespace opportunities in fermentation science.

• Support our research funding team in Europe in engaging with high-priority funders and government agencies to direct capital toward the highest-impact areas of alternative protein R&D.

• Support GFI-led funding programmes such as GFI’s global Research Grant Program or those led by GFI Europe’s research funding team, including serving as a grant proposal reviewer where needed.

• Provide subject matter expertise to support critical work led by GFI Europe’s policy,  industry, and communications teams. This will include monitoring and documenting key research findings, biotechnology advancements, and industry milestones related to fermentation-enabled proteins.

• With the support of our Communications team, serve as a trusted public-facing fermentation expert by communicating about alternative proteins through (science and other) media, digital channels, and conference/symposia presentations.

• Collaborate directly with equivalent roles in GFI’s global fermentation working group. This could include: 

• Aligning on global technical priorities

• Sharing knowledge across regions

• Supporting one another’s workstreams or working on shared projects

• Leading or supporting the development of global resources, such as technical explanatory materials for the fermentation sector

• Performing other tasks as required as a member of our small, nimble team.

You must have:

• A passion for GFI’s philosophy and mission.

• A Ph.D. in a relevant scientific field (e.g. biochemical engineering or synthetic biology).

• A deep understanding of the principles, methods, equipment, and techniques used in fermentation-made protein research and manufacturing for alternative proteins.

• A strategic mind; you will be responsible for selecting the highest-impact opportunities for catalysing the fermentation sector across Europe.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and the ability to tailor messages to scientists, university administrators, policymakers, funding bodies, and other relevant audiences.

• Excellent networking, interpersonal, influencing, and relationship-building abilities, and the credibility to represent GFI in front of important stakeholders, including academics, policymakers, and research funding bodies.

• Strong team spirit and open and collaborative instincts (you will be working closely with colleagues in our US SciTech team and around the world). 

• A can-do approach: a self-starter with the drive and initiative to take responsibility for delivering impact and an ability to see projects through to completion.

• Comfort working remotely in a rapidly-growing and evolving organisation: the ability to work well independently and under pressure, set priorities, coordinate multiple projects simultaneously, and meet deadlines. 

• Good level of IT literacy and a willingness to learn new software packages. 

• Our team’s common language is English, so you’ll need to be confident working in English.

The ideal candidate may also have some of the following, although these are absolutely not requirements:

• Field or direct industry experience in alternative proteins.

• Field or direct industry experience in adjacent industrial biomanufacturing sectors such as biofuels, biopharma, or the wider life sciences industry, as these have high potential for applicability in fermentation-enabled protein manufacturing.

• The ability to work in European languages other than English, especially: German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, or Swedish. 

We want the best people and we know that building a diverse, inclusive workplace leads to stronger, happier, more productive and resilient teams. We strongly encourage people of every ethnicity, orientation, age, gender, origin, socio-economic background, and ability to apply. As a pan-European organisation, we welcome applications from across the whole continent. Because we value a diverse workplace, we prioritise an inclusive culture absent of discrimination and harassment during the application process and after you join the team.

The Fine Print:

• Terms of employment: Full-time (flexible hours), 18-month fixed-term contract. Requests for part-time hours (30 hours/week or above) can be considered. Please state this in your application.

• Location: Flexible – we will consider applicants who are based in one of the following countries: UK, Netherlands, Belgium and France. This is a remote role, and you will be able to work from home, or anywhere you choose. We are happy to consider supporting costs for co-working to enable you to work from an office if you wish. The whole GFI Europe team aims to get together in person approximately twice per year for around 3-5 days at a time. Travel costs will be covered by GFI Europe within our travel policy.

• Salary and benefits: The salary and benefits package for all of our roles are researched and benchmarked based on similar nonprofit roles in the country/location of hire. Due to capacity, we cannot complete that research for every country in advance, but approximate indicative ranges (total annual amounts received in gross salary plus benefits including home-working allowance) are likely to be:

• €52,494 - €61,379 gross/year (€4,375 - €5,115 gross/month), in addition to 8% holiday pay if based in the Netherlands. This range is an example based on a hire in the Netherlands and will be adjusted to match our benchmarking of the successful applicant’s country of work.

• This range reflects the benchmarked salary for this role if based in the Netherlands. Equivalent benchmarking is applied for hires made in GFIE’s other countries of employment. 

• We thoroughly benchmark all of our salaries, which means it’s unfortunately not possible for our small HR team to provide a benchmark for every country ahead of launching a role. Instead, candidates may request a range for their specific country before taking part in an interview if they wish. Please note that we require at least 5 working days notice to provide a country specific benchmark, to ensure we can provide thorough and accurate information. 

• Right to work requirements: The successful candidate must, by the start of the employment, have permission to work in the country where they are based, and to be able to travel within the EU.

• Application Deadline: 26 July 2026, 11.59pm CET. We will get back to all candidates after that date, no matter the outcome of their application. You should expect to hear back from us within about two weeks of the deadline.